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Ariel Hanson had located a planet suitable for establishing a colony for the Agrian colonists. However, they were contacted by Selendis, who told Jim Raynor that several of the colonists were infested with zergspores and they needed to be killed. Hanson asked Raynor to protect the colony and give her a chance to develop a cure for the infestation, but Raynor reluctantly agreed with Selendis and ordered her to withdraw, stating he would handle the matter himself. This was much to Hanson's dismay.[1]

Raynor attempted to kill only the infested colonists and save those who were still human. Specialized zerg structures on the planet were spreading the virus to the outlying colonies and needed to be destroyed before the colonists became infested. Using vikings to destroy the deadly zerg brood lords from the air, Raynor's men destroyed the zerg bases and freed many of the colonists from infestation.[1]

During the mission, Egon Stetmann reported that Dr. Hanson had locked herself in the lab on board Hyperion, desperate to discover a cure for the virus and give Raynor a reason to stop the attack. However, she stopped responding to entreaties, and when the mission was complete, Matt Horner reported that there was a "problem in the lab." Raynor entered fully armored and, discovering a spilled sample, had Horner lock the door. His worst fears were confirmed when he found that Hanson herself was infested, and she attacked him while taunting him for his lack of compassion. When she attacked Raynor, he incapacitated and killed her.[2] Selendis's forces, meanwhile, sent the Raiders a plaque to honor their efforts.[3]

Mission map with vespene gas caches marked and settlements numbered in order of infection sequence.

There are three zerg bases and one infected settlement at the start of the game on the map. There are five uninfected settlements that will come under attack as the game progresses. Once infected, a settlement will spawn infected colonist and aberrations periodically until destroyed. The adjutant will announce any aberrations that have been spawned. It takes approximately 5 minutes (30 seconds longer on Casual and Normal difficulty) between each settlement infection. Each zerg base will shorten this time by 1 minute, so the player is advised to move quickly. The settlements are infected in a fixed repeating sequence:

Leftmost settlement, just south of your base.

Settlement between the topmost settlement and the center settlement.

Settlement on the right of the map, just below the right zerg base.

Topmost settlement.

Settlement in the middle.

Attacking zerg can be warded off with ease by building bunkers loaded with marines. Place the defenses on the cliffs near the top and bottom entrances leading into the starting location. Siege tanks may be necessary on hard difficulty and brutal, along with air defense. There are three caches of vespene gas available on the map, giving a total of 1200 units of gas:

An island on the bottom left of the map has six vespene gas items worth 600 gas.

An area on the bottom right next to a cliff has four vespene gas items worth 400 gas.

A ravine near the middle, to the right of the settlement in the center, has two vespene gas pickups worth 200 gas.

Collecting the gas caches will speed up the building of a Viking force. Though the zerg use the occasional hydralisk, their main defenders are air units like mutalisks and brood lords, which combined with their mobility makes the Viking the best choice for the mission. Attack the bases one by one, eliminate the zerg fliers first, then switch the fighters to assault mode to destroy the rest of the base. It also works perfectly well to switch some of the Vikings to assault mode and leave the rest in fighter mode.

Banshees are quite useful for this mission, as they have a strong anti-ground attack complementing the Vikings' anti-air capabilities, and can keep up with the Vikings' speed. Science vessels can also be handy for repairing the damage the Vikings and other mechanical units inevitably take. As gas is so plentiful on the map both unit types should be accessible easily.

If ghosts or spectres are acquired it is much easier to save colonies for the mission's achievements, as one nuclear missile is enough to destroy a developing virophage. Nuke the virophages as they develop, and focus on using the main attack force to clear out the already infested bases.

Even on brutal difficulty, it is possible to win the game with only vikings depending on how far the player's progressed in the campaign. Regenerative Bio-Steel is very useful, and the hive mind emulator or psi disrupter eliminate the need to train extra ground units at all, including any additional SCVs.

The base should be structured in a way that SCVs can repair bunkers safely and quickly. It should have at least two bunkers: one near the bottom side of the command center, where most zerg fly forces will attack, and one near the starting mercenary compound, which infested colonists tend to lock on while ignoring everything else until it's destroyed. Load each of the two bunkers with one firebat and two marines (your starting units), and, if they've got Neosteel Frame (2 extra slots for the bunker), reinforce them with a squadron of War Pigs. Extra missile turrets, bunkers, and war pigs are advised if most research points and upgrades have not been made collected/researched; the zerg send ultralisks and brood lords later on.

Even with Regenerative Bio-Steel, the flying force should be composed of many vikings. If available, upgrade weapon and armor to at least level 2 to even out with the other zerg units.

Every zerg base has spots that are less defended or locations that can be cleaned up by firepower, granting a landing site for vikings. There are also multiple occasions in which attacks can be made from a lower cliff level, by having at least a single viking in fighter (air) mode to grant vision while other vikings, in assault (ground) mode clear up zerg units and structures from below. This tactic is very useful to secure a relatively safe landing zone inside the zerg base. For example, in the eastern, initially-infested base (the easiest to cleanse), spore crawlers and a few infested huts can be targeted this way, allowing vikings to land on the top and start destroying the rest of the outpost from there. An idea (for whatever zerg base) is to kill the creep tumors and the hatchery/lair/hive, fly away if another settlement has come under attack, and let the other zerg buildings starve out, effectively saving time.

The southern zerg colony is deadlier, since it possesses up to five mutalisks and two brood lords while also keeping a number of banelings, which deal area damage when killed. In the preferred order, kill as many air units as possible and destroy the large infested building on the top-left side of the base. Then land the vikings on the now wide open site. Not all banelings will be stopped before approaching, but vikings can be lifted up as they get low on health.

Notice that attacks will sometimes have to be interrupted to aid settlements on risk of infestation. Logically, Regenerative Bio-Steel and/or a large number of vikings will make this whole process much easier and faster.

Despite having at least one ultralisk, the top base can easily be destroyed by a viking force of appropriate size.